New tender launched for Cernavoda units
06 August 2007
[Nuclearelectrica, Thomson Financial, 3 August] The Romanian government has launched a new tender for the construction of the Cernavoda 3 and 4 nuclear power reactors, the finance and economy ministry announced. Potential bidders have until 25 October to submit their bids. A project company for the completionof units 3 and 4 will be formed and work will begin in March 2008. InJune, Teodor Chirica, CEO of state generator Nuclearelectrica, said the64-month completion project would cost Eur2.2 billion ($3.0 billion),not including the cost of capital, but would result in two 720 MWeunits with 30-40 year lives. The units would be constructed in parallelwith a gap of "a couple of months" between each unit's start-up around2014-5. An initial tender for the project was launched in 2006 and indicated that 16 companies were interested in participating. However, following a change in government strategy over the financing of the project, the tendering process had to be restarted. The Cernavoda plant was originally intended to host five Canadian Candu pressurized heavy water reactors of 633 MWe each. Construction on units 2-5 was halted in 1991 in order to concentrate on unit 1, which entered commercial operation at the end of 1996. It now provides 10% of the country's electricity. The government decided to resume work on unit 2 in 2000. After some upgrades during completion, unit 2 is rated at 655 MWe and is expected to begin commercial operation in September.
Further information
Nuclearelectrica
WNA's Nuclear Power in Romania information paper
WNN: Cernavoda 3 and 4 decisions forthcoming
WNN: Cernavoda 2 achieves initial criticality